The Kentucky Derby is approaching again, and once again a writerly wager has been placed.
I guess we couldn't get enough of it last year, so authors Catherine Ryan Hyde, Brian Farrey, Kimberly Pauley, and myself are once again choosing our mounts and awaiting the results.
Here's how the bet works: whoever has the lead horse at the end of the race (it doesn't have to win) gets to make up the title of a short story, and the next author-horse combo has to write the story and post it online. This gets repeated down the line to the last finisher. So, the person whose horse comes in ahead of the others only has to create a title, but everyone else has to create a title for the next in line as well as write an assigned short story. The person at the end doesn't need to make up any title.
There may be other authors involved, too. But the first four from last year are coming back to do it again.
The big winners? Readers who will get a pack of fresh short stories from some pretty sharp authors.
Happy races.
